Yue (state)

Yue
Yue
	"Yue" in seal script (top) and modern (bottom) Chinese characters
Chinese	越こし
Hanyu Pinyin
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin	Yuè
Gwoyeu Romatzyh	Yueh
Wade–Giles	Yüeh4
IPA	[ɥê]
Wu
Suzhounese	Yuíh
Yue: Cantonese
Yale Romanization	Yuht
Jyutping	Jyut6
IPA	[jyt̚˨]
Southern Min
Tâi-lô	Ua̍t
Old Chinese
Baxter (1992)	*wjat
Baxter–Sagart (2014)	*[ɢ]ʷat

State of Yue
越こし
State of Yue 越こし
?–333 BC
	Map of the Chinese plain in the 5th century BC. The state of Yue is located in the southeast corner.
Status	Kingdom
Capital	Kuaiji, later Wu
Government	Monarchy
King
• 496–465 BC	Goujian
Historical era	Spring and Autumn period; Warring States period
• Established	?
• Conquered by Chu	333 BC
	Succeeded by
Minyue
Chu

Yue (Chinese: 越こし), also known as Yuyue (於越 or 于越), was a state in ancient China which existed during the first millennium BC – the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods of China's Zhou dynasty – in the modern provinces of Zhejiang, Shanghai and Jiangsu. Its original capital was Kuaiji (modern Shaoxing); after its conquest of Wu, Yue relocated its court north to the city of Wu (modern-day Suzhou). Yue was conquered by Chu in 333 BC.

History

A statue of a man, dating from the State of Yue era

A specific kingdom, which had been known as the "Yue Guo" (越えつ國こく) in modern Zhejiang, was not mentioned until it began a series of wars against its northern neighbor Wu during the late 6th century BC. According to the Records of the Grand Historian and Discourses of the States, the Yue are descended from Wuyu, the son of Shao Kang, the sixth king of the Xia dynasty.

The bronze sword of the Yue king Goujian, 771 to 403 BC

With help from Wu's enemy Chu, Yue won after several decades of conflict. The famous Yue King Goujian destroyed and annexed Wu in 473 BC. During the reign of Wuqiang (無む彊つよし), six generations after Goujian, Yue was partitioned by Chu and Qi in 333 BC.

During its existence, Yue was famous for the quality of its metalworking, particularly its swords. Examples include the extremely well-preserved Swords of Goujian and Zhougou.

The Yue state appears to have been a largely indigenous political development in the lower Yangtze. This region corresponds with that of the old corded-ware Neolithic, and it continued to be one that shared a number of practices, such as tooth extraction, pile building, and cliff burial. Austronesian speakers also still lived in the region down to its conquest and sinification beginning about 240 BC.^[1]

What set the Yue apart from other Sinitic states of the time was their possession of a navy.^[2] Yue culture was distinct in its practice of naming boats and swords.^[3] A Chinese text described the Yue as a people who used boats as their carriages and oars as their horses.^[4]

Rulers of Yue family tree

Their ancestral name is rendered variously as either Si (姒) or Luo (雒 or 駱).^[5]^[6]

Rulers of Yue family tree

⁽¹⁾ Marquis Wuyu of Yue 越えつ侯こう無む餘あまり



⁽²⁾ Marquis Wuren of Yue 越えつ侯こう無む壬みずのえ



⁽³⁾ Marquis Wushen of Yue 越えつ侯こう無む瞫



⁽⁴⁾ Marquis Futan of Yue 越えつ侯こう夫おっと譚たん (r. 565─538 BC)



⁽⁵⁾ Marquis Yunchang of Yue 越こし侯ほう允まこと常つね (d. 497 BC)



⁽⁶⁾ King Goujian of Yue 越えつ王おう句く踐 (496─465 BC)



⁽⁷⁾ King Luying of Yue 越えつ王おう鹿しか郢 (465─459 BC)



⁽⁸⁾ King Bushou of Yue 越えつ王おう不ふ壽ことぶき (459─449 BC)



⁽⁹⁾ King Weng of Yue 越えつ王おう翁おう (449─412 BC)



⁽¹⁰⁾ King Yi of Yue 越えつ王おう翳かげ (412─376 BC)



⁽¹¹⁾ King Zhihou of Yue 越えつ王おう之の侯ほう (376─375 BC)



⁽¹²⁾ King Chuwuyu of Yue 越えつ王おう初はつ無む余あまり (375─365 BC)



⁽¹³⁾ King Wuzhuan of Yue 越えつ王おう無む顓 (365─357 BC)



⁽¹⁴⁾ King Wuqiang of Yue 越えつ王おう無む彊つよし (357─333 BC)

Aftermath

Yue period small boat (diorama)

After the fall of Yue, the ruling family moved south to what is now northern Fujian and set up the Minyue kingdom. This successor state lasted until around 150 BC, when it miscalculated an alliance with the Han dynasty.

Mingdi, Wujiang's second son, was appointed minister of Wucheng (present-day Huzhou's Wuxing District) by the king of Chu. He was titled Marquis of Ouyang Ting, from a pavilion on the south side of Ouyu Mountain. The first Qin dynasty emperor Qin Shi Huang abolished the title after his conquest of Chu in 223 BC, but descendants and subjects of its former rulers took up the surnames Ou, Ouyang, and Ouhou (歐おう侯こう) in remembrance.

When the religious leader Xu Chang launched a rebellion against the Han dynasty in 172 CE, he declared the state of Yue restored and appointed his father Xu Sheng as "King of Yue". The rebels were crushed in 174.^[7]

Astronomy

In Chinese astronomy, there are two stars named for Yue:

Yue (along with Wu) is represented by the star Zeta Aquilae in the "Left Wall" of the Heavenly Market enclosure^[8]^[9]
Yue is also represented by the star Psi Capricorni or 19 Capricorni^[10] in the "Twelve States" of the mansion of the Girl.^[11]

Biology

The virus genus Yuyuevirus and the virus family Yueviridae are both named after the state.^[12]

People from Yue

Yuenü, swordswoman & author of the earliest-known exposition on swordplay^[13]
Xi Shi, a famous beauty of the ancient Yue Guo.

Language

Possible languages spoken in the state of Yue may have been of Tai-Kadai and Austronesian origins. 126 Tai-Kadai cognates have been identified in Maqiao Wu dialect spoken in the suburbs of Shanghai out of more than a thousand lexical items surveyed.^[14] According to the author, these cognates are likely traces of 'old Yue language' (古こ越えつ語ご; Gǔyuèyǔ).^[14]

References

^ Goodenough, Ward Hunt (1996). Prehistoric Settlement of the Pacific, Volume 86, Part 5. American philosophical society. p. 48. ISBN 9780871698650.
^ Holm 2014, p. 35.
^ Kiernan 2017, pp. 49–50.
^ Kiernan 2017, p. 50.
^ Chinese Text Project. Wu–Yue Chunqiu. 《越えつ王おう無む余よ外傳がいでん》 ["Yuèwàng Wúyú Wàizhuàn"]. Accessed 5 December 2013.(in Chinese)
^ Theobald, Ulrich. China Knowledge. "Chinese History – Yue 越こし (Zhou period feudal state)". 2000. Accessed 5 December 2013.
^ de Crespigny (2016), pp. 402–403.
^ "AEEA (Activities of Exhibition and Education in Astronomy) 天文てんもん教育きょういく資し訊網". 23 Jul 2006. (in Chinese)
^ Allen, Richard. "Star Names – Their Lore and Meaning: Aquila".
^ "Star Tales – Capricornus". www.ianridpath.com. Retrieved 30 July 2019.
^ Allen, Richard. "Star Names – Their Lore and Meaning: Capricornus".
^ Wolf, Yuri; Krupovic, Mart; Zhang, Yong Zhen; Maes, Piet; Dolja, Valerian; Koonin, Eugene V.; Kuhn, Jens H. "Megataxonomy of negative-sense RNA viruses" (docx). International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV). Retrieved 12 January 2019.^{[dead link]}
^ Lily Xiao Hong Lee; A. D. Stefanowska (2007). Biographical dictionary of Chinese women: antiquity through Sui, 1600 B.C.E.-618 C.E. M.E. Sharpe. p. 91.
^ ^a ^b Li 2001, p. 15.

Sources

de Crespigny, Rafe (2016). Fire over Luoyang: A History of the Later Han Dynasty 23–220 AD. Leiden, Boston: Brill. ISBN 9789004324916.
Holm, David (2014). "A Layer of Old Chinese Readings in the Traditional Zhuang Script". Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities: 1–45.
Kiernan, Ben (2017), Việt Nam: A History from Earliest Times to the Present, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-195-16076-5.
Li, Hui (2001). "Daic Background Vocabulary in Shanghai Maqiao Dialect" (PDF). Proceedings for Conference of Minority Cultures in Hainan and Taiwan, Haikou: Research Society for Chinese National History: 15–26. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2018-03-27. Retrieved 2018-03-28.

External links

Eric Henry: The Submerged History of Yuè (Sino-Platonic Papers 176, May 2007)

[Goodenough_1996-1] Goodenough, Ward Hunt (1996). Prehistoric Settlement of the Pacific, Volume 86, Part 5. American philosophical society. p. 48. ISBN 9780871698650.

[FOOTNOTEHolm201435-2] Holm 2014, p. 35.

[FOOTNOTEKiernan201749–50-3] Kiernan 2017, pp. 49–50.

[FOOTNOTEKiernan201750-4] Kiernan 2017, p. 50.

[5] Chinese Text Project. Wu–Yue Chunqiu. 《越えつ王おう無む余よ外傳がいでん》 ["Yuèwàng Wúyú Wàizhuàn"]. Accessed 5 December 2013.(in Chinese)

[6] Theobald, Ulrich. China Knowledge. "Chinese History – Yue 越こし (Zhou period feudal state)". 2000. Accessed 5 December 2013.

[FOOTNOTEde_Crespigny2016402–403-7] Crespigny (2016), pp. 402–403.

[8] "AEEA (Activities of Exhibition and Education in Astronomy) 天文てんもん教育きょういく資し訊網". 23 Jul 2006. (in Chinese)

[9] Allen, Richard. "Star Names – Their Lore and Meaning: Aquila".

[10] "Star Tales – Capricornus". www.ianridpath.com. Retrieved 30 July 2019.

[11] Allen, Richard. "Star Names – Their Lore and Meaning: Capricornus".

[2017.006M-12] Wolf, Yuri; Krupovic, Mart; Zhang, Yong Zhen; Maes, Piet; Dolja, Valerian; Koonin, Eugene V.; Kuhn, Jens H. "Megataxonomy of negative-sense RNA viruses" (docx). International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV). Retrieved 12 January 2019.^{[dead link]}

[13] Lily Xiao Hong Lee; A. D. Stefanowska (2007). Biographical dictionary of Chinese women: antiquity through Sui, 1600 B.C.E.-618 C.E. M.E. Sharpe. p. 91.

[FOOTNOTELi200115-14] Li 2001, p. 15.

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Yue (state)

Contents

History

Rulers of Yue family tree

Aftermath

Astronomy

Biology

People from Yue

Language

See also

References

Sources

Further reading

External links